Process of extracting oil or grease.



No. 668,2"). Patented Feb. I9, l90l.

N. B. POWTEH. PROCESS OF EXTBACTING OIL UR GREASE.

(Application filed Dec. 21, 1898.) (No Model.) 3 Sheets-$hqefl 2. F932,

WITNESSES:

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No. 668,210. Patented Feb. l9, I90l.

' N. B. PGWTER.

PRDCESS 0F EXTBACT'ING OIL OR GREASE.

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PROCESS EXTRACTING OIL OR GREASE.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 668,210, dated February19, 1901.

Application filed December 21, 1898. Serial No. 699,905. (No specimens.)

To (tZZ whont it may concern.-

Be it known that I, NATHANIEL B. PoWTER, a subject of the Queen ofEngland, residing in the city of New York, borough of Brooklyn, in thecounty of Kings and State of New York, have invented a certain new anduseful Process of Extracting Oil or Grease from Oil-Bearing Substances;and I do hereby declare the following to be a full, clear, and exactdescription of the invention, such as will enable others skilled in theart to which it appertains to make and use the same. 1

My invention relates. to a process of extracting grease and oil fromoil-bearing substances, and particularly from waste productssuch asrefuse meat, tallow, lard, tankage, garbage, town refuse, and fishwasteand from vegetable matter, such as linseed, hemp-seed, cotton-seed,cocoanuts, or any other vegetable material holding oil; and my inventionconsists in the novel steps of the process herein described.

The object of my invention is to extract oil and grease from oil bearingsubstances, and particularly from substances such as those mentionedabove, in a thorough, efficient, and economical manner and to avoid theliberation of offensive fumes. This objectis attainedin the processherein described.

In the drawings which accompany and form a part of this specification Iillustrate an apparatus which may be employed in the carrying-out of theprocess and which forms the subject-matter of an application for LettersPatent, filed by me on December 21, 1898,

V Serial No. 699,906.

Figure 1 is a general elevation of the apparatus. Fig. 2 is a centralvertical section of the digester, separator, drier, and purifiers; andFig. 3 is a larger sectional view of an alternative form of digesterJ Inthe drawings, 1 is a digester; 2, a separator; 3, a drier; 421,116. 5,purifiers; 6, a vacuum or suction pump; 7, a fume-trap, and 8 a tank forreceiving the waste matter dis charged from the purifiers.

9 is an elevator by which the grease-bearing substances may be deliveredto the digester.

11 and 12 are barrels into which the grease and oil extracted may bepassed.

-The digester, separator, and purifiers are of the same shape, theirform being that of two cones placed base to base. The digester hasrunning through it a vertical shaft 13, provided with arms carryingstirring-blades 14, and between these stirring-arms are sta tionaryprojecting arms 15, secured to the sides of the digester. The digesteris connected at its lower end with the separator 2 by a passagelii,provided with a gate-valve 17. The lower end of the shaft 13 is providedwith stirring-arms 18, projecting downward into this passage 16, thefunction of which arms is to prevent solid matter from collecting at thebottom of the digester to'such an extent as to block the outlet.

The separator 2 is provided with a transverse screen 19 near its upperend, the passage 16 being continued within the separator to an openingin the screen, through which the matter discharged from the digester maypass into the lower portion of the, separator. Directly beneath thescreen 19 is a revolnblymounted screen-scraper 20, designed to pre ventclogging of the screen, and below the scraper are revolubly-mountedstirring-arms 21, similar to the corresponding stirring-arms of thedigester. No stationary arms located between the revolving stirring-armsare required, however. As shown in the drawings, the scraper 20 and thestirringarms 21 are mounted upon separate but concentric shafts 22 and23, respectively, which may be driven at will from a gear-wheel 24,itself driven from any suitable source. of power in any con venientmanner by means of a jaw-clutch 25; but both scraper and stirrers may bemounted upon the shaft 23 and so caused to rotate together, ifpreferred, the outer shaft 22 being omitted.

The separator 2 is slightly smaller than the digester 1, for a reasonwhich will be given hereinafter.

The separator is connected at the bottom with the drier 3 by means of apassage 26, having in it a gate-valve 27. The drier is steam-jacketedand is provided with a series of stirring-arms mounted upon a shaft 28,by which said arms may be rotated.

To the digester 1 is connected at the top a pipe 29, leading downwardlyto the bottom of the purifier 4. The separator 2 is also connected tothis pipe 29 by a branch 30 entering the separator at the, top,and'a'pipe 31, also connected to pipe 29, leads to the vacuum-pump 6.The pipe 29 is provided with a valve 32, through which grease may bedrawn off without passing it into the separator 4, if desired.

v A pipe 33 is connected to the purifier 4 at the top and leads to thebottom of the purifier 5. To this pipe is connected a valve 34, throughwhich oil may be drawn off into the barrel 11. i The purifier 5isprovided with a pipe 35, through which grease or oil within it may bedrawn off into the barrel l2. Purifiers 4 and 5 are connected by pipes37 and 38 with the vacuum-pump 6. The purifiers are provided with shaftsand stirring-arms, by

which their contents may be stirred, if desired. The purifier 5 isprovided with a steamjacket, by which its contents may be heated to anydesired temperature. The purifiers are arranged to discharge their fluidcontents when desired into a tank 8.

36 is a pipe connecting the drier 3 with the vacuum-pipe 31.

37 and 38 are pipes connecting the pipes 33 and with the vaccuum-pipe31.

39 and 40 are steam and water supply mains, respectively, connected tothe digester, separator, and purifiers at the bottom.

The process is carried on as follows: The digester is charged with thematerial to be treated th rough a manhole in its top by means of theelevator 9 or in any other convenient manner. The manhole is then closedand steam is admitted to cook the contents of the digester, th'estirring-arms being rotated so as to grind and disintegrate the matterbeing ter settles to the bottom of thedigester.

treated. The cooki n g is continued from three to five hours, accordingto the nature of the substance treated, no escape of steam 'or fumesbeing allowed. The action of thesteam and of the condensed vapor and themechanical disintegration produced by the action of the stirring-armsbreaks up the fibrous structure of the matter under treatment,liberating the oils and grease, while the solid mat- For the treatmentof some substances dilute sulfuric acid or other suitable reducing agentmay be added to the mass within the digester. When the substance beingtreated contains glue and similar substances,salt or othergluerestrainer may be added to the mass to restrain the glue from goingover with the grease. In an application for Letters Patent filedDecember 6, 1899, Serial No. 739,407, I have described and claimed aprocess for extracting both oil and glue from fish material, in whichprocess salt is used for restraining the glue until the oil has beenremoved. When the mass in the digester has been sufficiently treatedtherein, connection with the vacuum-pump is opened, and the steam andvapors are drawn out and caused to pass through the water in the tank 7.This I do for two reasons-first, to avoid the escape of odoriferousgases, and, second, to separate from'the mass of grease andoil and othersubstances within the dige'ster certain light oils 'and greases which Ihave found will pass off with the steam and vapors when suction isapplied in a practically pure condition. By this means these lighteroils may be separated from the heavier oils and grease. The oil andgrease thus carried off are caught by the water in the tank 7 and floatupon the top of the water and may be collected in any convenient manner.The vapors which pass through the water in the tank 7 are passed into aconvenient furnace, such as the furnace of the boiler by which steam issupplied to the apparatus, and are burned, no odoriferous gases beingallowed to escape. The fumes having been drawn off completely, the'valve17 in the passage connecting the digester and separator may be openedand the contents of the digester discharged into the separator. The sizeof the separator is so proportioned to that of the digester that a fullcharge of the digester after treatment, as above described, whentransferred to the separator fills the latter almost up to its screen.Hence after the mass has settled down acomparatively small quantity ofwater admitted into the separator at the bottom will raise all of theoil and grease through the screen and cause it to pass off through thepipe 30 into the purifier 4 or otherwise. The separator having beencharged,

as above described, water is admitted, as

above mentioned, the stirring-arms being rotated and the screen-scraperalso when necessary, and the grease and oil within the mass are causedto rise through the mass and are concentrated in the narrow conical topof the separator, passing off into the pipe 30 and so into the purifier4. Before sufficient water has been added to raise the grease within theseparator to the level of the discharge-opening, suction may be appliedto the separator to draw off any of the light oils capable of passingoff in this manner and which have been raised to the surface of the massby the action of. the water. After the grease has been drawn oif fromthe separator the admission of water is stopped, the gate-valve 27opened, and the contents of the separator permitted to pass'into thedrier 3. The valve 27 is then closed, steam is admitted to thesteam-jacket surrounding the drier, and the connection of the drier tothe vacuum-pump being opened the drying of the contents of the drier iscommenced, the stirring-arms being rotated, as required. Drying iscontinued until the mass within the drier is reduced to a drypulverulent condition. The fumes liberated Within the drier are drawnoff by the suction-pump 6 and caused to pass through the water in thetank 7. The grease, which is passed over into the purifier 4, is allowedto remain quiet therein for a time in order that any solid matter whichmay have been carried over with it may be allowed to settle. If anydecomposed matter has passed over into the purifier 4,steam may be blownthrough themass therein for a time and then dry air passed through it bymeans of a vacuumpump, thus purifying the grease and drawing off allodoriferous vapors. While the oil and grease are within the purifier 4,they may also be treated with any purifying liquid with which it may bedesirable to treat them, the grease and oil being caused to pass upthrough said liquid in the purifier 4 by reason of theirlighter-specific gravity. The lighter oils may then he drawn off intothe barrel 11 by admitting water into the purifier 4 at the bottorn Theheavier greases, such as lard, may be passed over into the purifier 5and heated by passing steam through the steam-jacket of said purifieruntil all water has been driven oif. be admitted at the bottom of thepurifier 5, so as to cause the grease within such purifier to pass outat the top thereof, the water being admitted so slowly that itis notmixed to any appreciable extent with the grease.

The operation of separating the grease from the solid matter conductedin the separator 2 might be conducted in the digester itself, a digesterbeing employed Which'has a screen and a screen-scraper, such as thedigester illustrated in Fig. 3; but during the process of digestion themass in the digester settles down so as to occupy much less volume thanwhen first charged into the digester. To float the oil, therefore, wouldrequire the admission of a very considerable quantity of water to thedigester, and all water admitted to the digester must be evaporated inthe drier 3. The admission of such an excessive quantity of water forthe mere purpose of floating off the grease is obviated by passing thecontents of the digester, after digestion is completed, into theseparator 2, the size of which bears a proper proportion to the volumeoccupied by a full charge of the digester after the digestion iscompleted, and the use of such a separator, independent of and separatefrom the digester, results in an important economy both in time and incost of treatment. The drying of the solid residue might be conducted inthe separator itself orin the digester itself if the separation of thegrease from the solid matter also takes place in the digester; but thisis not desirable, because such drying can be conducted more efficientlyand economically in a vessel especially adapted for this purpose.Moreover, by using a separate digester,

- separator, and drier the process of digestion may be carried on in thedigester while the separation of the grease from the solid matter of aprevious charge is taking place in the separator and while the solidmatter of a still earlier charge is being dried in the drier, the

process being practically continuous. The

When this has been done, water may.

moved from the separator without the passing over therewith of anappreciable quantity of water. By making the lower portion of thedigesterconicahwithinwardly-tapering sides, it has been found thatclogging of the month of the digester may be prevented and that when thevalve 27 is opened the entire solid contents of the separator will fallinto the drier.

It will be noted that throughout the operation of extracting andpurifying the oil and grease and drying the residue there is no escapeof vapors or gases into the outside air, the entire process beingconducted in closed receptacles.

The treatment in the purifiers and drier may be omitted Withoutdeparting from the essential features of my process. In some casesas,for instance, in the fishing industry, when the process may be carriedout on shipboardthe purifiers and drier may be omitted, the oils andgrease being discharged directly from the separator or from a combineddigester and separator, such, as that shown in Fig. 2, (with or withoutthe separate shaft 22 for carrying the screen-scraper,) into barrels ortanks, the residue being thrown overboard or utilized in any suitablemanner.

When the oil-bearing substance treated contains no floating matter whichit is necessary to restrain from going over with the grease, the screenand scraper in the separator or combined digester and separator may beomitted.

Having thus completely described my invention, what I claim, and desireto secure by Letters Patent, is

1. The herein-described process of extracting grease and oil from oilbearing substances, which consists in subjecting such substances to theaction of a heated vapor or liquid within a closed receptacle, and tomechanical disintegration, drawing off the vapors produced, by suction,after the digestion, and separating the grease and oils from the solidresidue, substantially as described.

2. The herein-described process of separating oil and grease from oil-bearing substances, which consists in first liberating the oil andgrease, and then applying suction to the mass, thereby separating anddrawing off the lighter oil and grease, and collecting the oil andgrease so drawn off.

3. The herein-described process of separating oil and grease from oilbearing substances, which consists in first heating a mass of suchsubstance, and then applying suction to the mass, Within a closedvessel, at a point above the level of the mass, thereby separating anddrawing off the lighter oil and grease, and collecting the oil andgrease so drawn ofi.

4:. The herein-described process of separating oil and grease from oilbearing substances, and recovering the same, which consists in firstliberating the oil and grease and then applying suction to the mass,within a closed vessel, at a point above the level of the mass, therebyseparating and drawing off the lighter oil and grease with vapors withinthe vessel, and passing the Vapors so drawn off through Water or otherliquid, so as to separate the oil and grease so drawn off from the gasesand vapors. r

5. The herein-described process of extracting grease and oil from oilbearing substances, which consists in adding to the mass to be treated aglne-restrainer, subjecting the mass to the action of a heated vapor orliquid, and to mechanical disintegration, and then separating the greaseand oil so liberated from the solid residue, by adding water to the massso as to float such grease and oil upward, substantially as described.

6. The herein-described process of extracting grease and oil fromoil-bearing substances, which consists in adding salt to the Intestimony whereof I affix my signature in the presence of two Witnesses.

NATHANIEL B. POWTER.

Witnesses: GEO. HASSLEMAN, DANIEL W. ALLAMAN.

